Phoenix's Sleeve is Out of This World

Back on August, I met a man named Phoenix in Penn Station who shared the sleeve on his right arm.

The work starts near his shoulder, with a traditional-style pin-up girl straddling a rocket in an outer space motif:

The cat perched on the rocket in front of the woman represents Phoenix's love of animals.

The centerpiece of the sleeve, however, is lower on the arm and represents his love of astrology:

From a practical purpose, he had his natal astrological chart wrapping around his limb. In theory, he told me, anyone who knows astrology could come up and read his arm and gain insight into his astrological makeup.

Phoenix was born with the Sun in Aries rising in Leo and with his moon in Gemini.

This work was done by Lou at Third Eye Tattoo in Park Slope, Brooklyn, about six years ago. Lou's handiwork has been featured many times over the years here on the site and can be seen here.

Thanks to Phoenix for sharing his spectacular sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!

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John's Tattoo Identity (With a Bonus Vendetta)

I met John recently in a local drug store in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn.

I had actually seen John once previously in the store, but had been unable to speak to him at the time, so I was happy when I ran into him again.

His upper right arm is a Star Wars tribute, but I shot the left arm instead. He was laughing because he had just been questioned by several people at a nearby department store and now that he had escaped to a different shop, here I was questioning him about his work.

This is a shot of his left arm:

Like the Star Wars theme on his right arm, the left arm embraces outer space, what John called his "tattoo identity".

He did note that this had been reworked and represented the repairing  of a much smaller piece. He sung high praise to Alex Franklin of Brooklyn Ink, who did the majority of this work and made the piece what it is today. Alex and Brooklyn Ink are no strangers to Tattoosday. This link takes the reader to all posts tagged "Brooklyn Ink".

Before explaining that tattoo to me, however,  he had shown me something that had not been visible in the department store. He pulled up his shirt to reveal this awesome V for Vendetta tattoo in the top center section of his back:

John loved the graphic novel and the movie as well.

The character of V makes a striking tattoo. This was inked by the incomparable Designs by Michael Angelo in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Work from his shop has appeared previously here on the blog.

Thanks to John for sharing his incredible tattoos with us here on Tattoosday! We hope to bring his Star Wars sleeve to the site some time in the future.

Frankie and Her Brother, Forever in Ink

Frankie designed this cartoon portrait of herself with her brother holding hands. The tattoo is on her left bicep. That's her on the right, with the red hair.

She had this inked at Village Pop Inc. on West 4th Street in Manhattan. I caught Frankie on the R train and took the photo on the 95th Street platform in Bay Ridge.

Thanks to Frankie for sharing this poignant tattoo here with us at Tattoosday!

Damien's Pistol Star Nebula Tattoo is Out of this World

Sorry. Couldn't resist that title.

I ran into Damien near Fashion Institute of Technology earlier in the week, and her bright, colorful tattoo just jumped right off of her in the sunlight.

She explained to me that it is based on a photograph of the Pistol Star Nebula, as seen from the Hubble telescope:
She stumbled upon the photo on the NASA website and loved the shape of it. Anyone who has seen the photos from the Hubble, which are in the public domain, should agree that they are spectacular visions from beyond our world.

The book designer and novelist Chip Kidd coincidentally posted this past week, on his website about a new book for which he had designed the cover (here), the images on which were from the Hubble eye on the universe.

This piece was inked by Chris Kowalski, a tattooist in Toronto at Abstract Arts Tattoo and Body Piercing, and is one of seven tattoos that Damien has.

I noticed after the fact, while glancing at her website, that the tattoo is inked above a pre-existing piece, as evidenced in this photo from her site:


Aside from the symbol for infinity and the arrows pointing out from all directions, I cannot speculate on the meaning of this earlier tattoo, but am hoping she will offer up an explanation at a later date.

Thanks to Damien for sharing her galactic ink with us here on Tattoosday!